This invention relates to bottle orienting apparatus, and more particularly relates to apparatus for accepting bottles, each of which has a first end and a second end, in random, first end leading and first end trailing dispositions, and selectively reorienting the bottles so that they lie in substantially uniform, first end leading dispositions.
Pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic manufacturers among others utilize literally millions of bottles each year. As can be appreciated, these bottles must be processed on high speed treating and filling equipment, and they must be fed into such equipment in substantially uniform dispositions. For example, if bottles entering a filling machine were fed into such a machine in random dispositions, the filling nozzles would be aligned with the openings of some of the bottles, but would be misaligned with the openings of other ones of the bottles.
Normally, after the bottles have been formed, they are simply placed into boxes or bins in completely random disposition. Various types of apparatus are available for accepting a mass of such randomly oriented bottles and discharging them one by one in substantially endwise dispositions so that they constitute a stream of advancing bottles. However, such apparatus discharges some of the bottles with one end leading and discharges others of the bottles in the stream with the other end leading. Therefore, before such a stream of advancing bottles reaches the bottle treating and filling equipment, certain ones of the bottles must be reoriented so that all of the bottles lie in a substantially uniform disposition. Various devices have been proposed to accomplish such selective reorientation.
In describing apparatus of this type, it is useful to describe the elements of the apparatus with reference to the direction of motion of the bottles being processed. Thus, the term "downstream" should be understood as meaning "in the direction of motion of the bottles being processed", and the term "upstream" should be understood as meaning the reverse direction.
As can be appreciated, the cost of processing each bottle through any such apparatus will be inversely proportional to the speed of operation of the apparatus. As the speed of operation of the apparatus is increased, the cost of operating the apparatus for a given period of time is spread among a larger number of bottles, so that the cost of processing each bottle is reduced. Therefore, the development of bottle-orienting apparatus has been directed towards increasing the speed of operation of the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,776,034, issued Jan. 1, 1957 to R. C. Jordt illustrates one type of device for selectively reorienting ampules having well defined, elongated neck portions. The ampules are fed through a chute by gravity, in random neck-leading and neck-trailing dispositions, towards a bend in the chute. At the bend, a hole is provided in one of the walls of the chute. If any ampules arrives in neck leading orientation at the bend in the chute, its neck will enter into the hole so that the motion of its neck end will be arrested. Its opposite end will continue to move along the chute and will therefore bypass the neck end. Thus, each such ampules is reoriented to a neck trailing disposition. By contrast, any ampules which arrives at the bend in the chute in neck trailing disposition will be unaffected by the hole, as the end of each ampules opposite from the neck is too wide to enter into the hole. Therefore, downstream of the bend in the chute, all of the ampules will be in substantially uniform, neck trailing orientation. However, the speed of operation of any such device will be limited by the speed at which the ampules will advance under the influence of gravity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,688, issued June 20, 1978 to Christina S. Ionescu and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, teaches a different apparatus for accomplishing such a selective reorientation. This apparatus includes a pair of opposed, spaced rotating rollers which are so configured that they will not engage the relatively narrow neck ends of bottles being processed but will engage the relatively wide ends of such bottles which are opposite from the necks. The bottles are fed to the rollers in a direction transverse to the gap between the rollers. If a bottle is initially in neck-leading disposition, it will continue to move in the direction transverse to the gap until its neck end encounters a cam surface which tends to tilt the bottle so that its relatively wide, initially-trailing end lies between the rollers, whereupon that end will be engaged by the rollers and pulled through the gap. Thus, each such bottle will be discharged through the gap in neck-trailing disposition. By contrast, each bottle which is initially in neck-trailing disposition will retain such disposition as it passes through the rollers. Its relatively wide leading end will arrive at the rollers first and will be immediately engaged and pulled through the gap. Thus, the apparatus discharges the bottles in substantially uniform, neck-trailing dispositions.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,012, issued Feb. 25, 1975 to Louis H. Kinsley teaches an apparatus for orienting bottles having an open end and a closed end into uniform, closed end leading dispositions. In this apparatus, a stream of bottles in random open end leading and closed end leading dispositions is advanced down a chute. A pin is pivotally mounted to the chute so that it can be rotated between two different positions. In the first position the pin extends upstream along the chute from its pivot, while in the second position the pin extends downstream along the chute. While the pin is pointing upstream, a bottle is advanced until it enounters the pin. If the bottle has its open end leading, the pin will enter into the open end of the bottle and the bottle will thus become engaged with the pin. If on the other hand the bottle has its closed end leading, the pin cannot enter into the bottle and the bottle will not become engaged with the pin. After a bottle is advanced to the pin, the pin is pivoted to its second position wherein it points downstream. Thus, any bottle which was initially in an open end leading disposition will be pivoted along with the pin to a closed end leading disposition. Any bottle which was originally in a closed end leading disposition will not be rotated along with the pin and will therefore remain in a closed end leading disposition, so that the apparatus discharges a stream of bottles in substantially uniform, closed end leading dispositions.
As can be appreciated, the intermittent motion of the pin will limit the speed of operation of such apparatus. Further, because the pin must enter into at least some of the bottles being processed, the pin can contaminate or scratch the interiors of the bottles.
British Pat. No. 1,403,182, published Aug. 20, 1975, discloses other apparatus for selectively reorienting bottles. In this apparatus, a pair of rotationally mobile discs are coaxially mounted and define a space between them. The bottles are advanced into the space between the discs, become frictionally engaged with the discs and are transported downstream by the discs in random, open ending leading and open end trailing dispositions. A hook is pivotally mounted so that a bottle engaging portion of the hook extends into the space between the discs. The bottle engaging portion of the hook is biased in the upstream direction, and includes a pin which points upstream. If a bottle is transported by the discs in closed end leading disposition, the bottle engaging portion of the hook will simply be forced out of the way by the advancing bottle, and the disposition of that bottle will be substantially unaffected by the hook. By contrast, if a bottle is advanced by the discs in open end leading disposition, the pin of the hook will enter into the open end of the bottle and will retard the motion of the open end. Therefore, as the discs continue to rotate, the other portions of the bottle will bypass the open end so that the bottle is inverted to an open end trailing, closed end leading disposition.
Although such bottle orienting apparatus is capable of reliable operation at high speeds (on the order of hundreds of bottles per minute), it does present certain difficulties. For one, the speed of operation of the apparatus is limited by the speed at which the hook can move out of the way when a bottle arrives in closed end leading disposition and then return to its position between the discs to catch the next bottle. The speed with which the hook will move depends in part upon its polar moment of inertia about its pivotal mounting and in part upon the strength of bias applied to it. Of course, the polar moment of inertia about the pivot cannot be reduced indefinitely without weakening the hook. The strength of the bias on the hook cannot be increased indefinitely without making it impossible for the hook to swing out of the way in the event it encounters a closed end leading bottle. Futher, such apparatus tends to rather suddenly engage each open-end leading bottle with the hook and thereby subjects each such bottle to impact forces. Such impact forces are especially severe during extremely high speed operation of the apparatus.